I finally finished my latest tiki mug shelf. I'm pretty happy with the overall look and how it turned out. I tried to make it match with the turtle tank stand that I made last year. I opted not to use more Melina fabric, and instead used up the rest of the thatching that I bought for the turtle tank stand.

This was also my first attempt at wiring up tiki torches with flicker bulbs. After a lot of trial and error I learned that the Dremmel tool worked best for opening up the tins at the top of the torches.

As my wife calls it, it's another "Caltrans" project, because I was already way over capacity long before the project was even finished. Now I gotta go back to the drawing board and design a new shelf (and find a new wall) for even more mugs. Oh well, I guess there's worse problems to have in life.

This one started over the weekend, after an awesome find at Kobey's Swap Meet. My wife spotted this weird item hidden behind a bunch of junk. Turns out it used to house some sort of Musak speaker system, which had been plundered out of it some time ago.

We instantly knew this had the potential to make a kickin' tiki mug shelf so we bought it. Only $15!

This is what it looked like when I got it home.

Plans are to repair the wood, install lighting in the wicker speaker housings, and put some sort of fabric background behind the center portion.

So tonight was my first session of work on it. I got the lights wired up. The coiled flourescent lights were for testing only. The lights I have installed right now are a sweet pair of globe lamps that give a nice warm glow.

I also installed some quick and easy mounting brackets so I could hang it up on the wall. Looks like this guy has sat on a floor for it's entire life.

I'm really pleased with it so far, and I can't wait to do some TLC on the wood and finish up with some nice fabric.

I hope you like it too!

By the way, other then a vague story about it housing some Musak speakers, I really don't know anything about this weird lookin' thing. My assumption is that it is handmade. I know it's old and it's awesome. That's about it. Has anyone ever seen anything like this before?

On 2007-11-20 07:50, Tipsy McStagger wrote:-cool-...maybe putting some colored bulbs in place of the white ones my add more ambience...those squiggly bulbs now come in colors too, as do the regular "party lite" bulbs

I've Seen them at Walgreen's and CVS.
That is an awesome idea for a shelf & light system!!
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